Overview
- The 75‑metre sailing yacht Bayesian capsized and sank in the Mediterranean on 19 August 2024, killing seven people including owner Mike Lynch.
- Italian prosecutorial experts have provisionally concluded that a chain of crew errors triggered a rapid capsize after extreme lateral wind gusts increased the vessel’s heel beyond a recoverable angle.
- Investigators found two technical contributors to the loss of stability: the yacht’s very tall 75‑metre mast and an apparently not fully deployed daggerboard, a movable keel that helps a sailing vessel right itself in strong sideways wind.
- The Italian conclusion differs from an earlier British MAIB analysis that emphasized possible technical or construction weaknesses, creating a substantive disagreement that the full expert report must resolve.
- A complete expert report is due by November 30, 2026, after which the public prosecutor will decide whether to press charges against three crew members now under investigation for negligent shipwreck and multiple counts of negligent homicide.